


When Time Collides (Cherik)

by Explizit_Lizards



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: 2 men one bed, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternative Perspective, Angst, Cherik - Freeform, Cherik Week 2020, Domestic Fluff, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fix-It, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Home Renovations, Logan (2017), M/M, Movie: X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019), Post-X-Men: Days of Future Past, WIP, alternative ending, timeline cross over, x men: the last stand
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:48:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26298904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Explizit_Lizards/pseuds/Explizit_Lizards
Summary: After Paris Charles agrees to create a home with Erik forcing the two men to face their troubled past and rediscover their love for one another. The two begin to find some peace with their new domestic life when it's all torn apart again when a troubled Wolverine from a time line where none of them ever met finds his way into their lives. Erik and Charles lives are further upheaved when Kitty Pryde appears from the future coming with an earth shattering warning. Will Charle's and Erik's love manage to reach across converging timelines or will they lose each other forever?
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr & Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7
Collections: Cherik Week 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> PS--(This fic will combine all the messed up time lines from the films)  
> PPS-- (also I realize I'm like 4 months too late for Cherik week, but this is quarantine, time isn't real)

CHARLES

So here I am; Paris. It feels worlds away from home, worlds away from everything. It’s peaceful, everything is quite here. The thoughts of the people around me are nothing more than background noise; a soft growl that is the French language. The words have no meaning to me, so they sit stagnate at the back of my mind, much different from the constant scream of thoughts and voices back home. It’s strange to be away after all this time, but for once I don’t feel guilty for laying down my sword and having a rest. The café looks like it’s straight out of a postcard. A place that should only exist in romcoms and fairytales. I feel out of place in the quaintness of it all, a sore thumb distracting from its beauty. The tables around me are full of couples holding hands. Their love sends a pang of loneliness through me, the feeling is soft and melancholy and familiar.

ERIK

I see him from across the river. Actually, I feel him before I see him, his presence relays a low hum. Anyone who wasn’t trying to feel it would miss it, but the years I’ve spent with him have made the vibration unmistakable. It’s as if his powers are seeping out of him, you can hear his mind whirring: the grand complex thing it is. He looks the most peaceful I’ve ever seen him, sitting at a small round table drinking coffee. He smiles at something, I can’t tell at what, but the mirthfulness of the smile makes me question why I’m here. _Maybe this isn’t right maybe I’ve caused too much pain._ The damage I’ve caused in the past might be too much for either of us to make amends, it might be too late for us. _Too late._ I don’t know what I was thinking when I came here, the truth is I wasn’t. when I heard that Charles had left the school, the country, I had no other thought then that I needed to find him, I _needed_ to. I have been wandering Paris, I got the address to where he’s staying from Scott, but when I went to the place he wasn’t there. So I had nothing to do but drift around Paris hoping that by some miracle I would find him, and here he is. No I cam't give up now I’ve come all this way.

CHARLES

The man startles me when he sits down, I don’t know how I let him sneak up on me, normally every time Erik is around it sends a siren blaring through my mind something I couldn’t ignore if I tried.

“Erik,” I whisper his name as if it’s sacred.

He smiles sheepishly at me, even though I try as hard as I can not to read his mind, his emotions are spilling out of him, a rush of nerves and joy rush over me and I breathe in his emotions as if they are my own. I want to trust him, I want him to be the man I first met all those years ago, but there’s a part of my that’s hesitant to open myself up to him once more.

“how’s retirement treating you?” he asks I can tell he’s searching for a way to lighten his sudden presence here.

“What are you doing her Erik?” I try to keep the exhaustion and fatigue from my voice. I don’t think I can keep my anger from him. He’s still the good-hearted man I’ve always known, but this time perhaps it is I who has changed. I’m so tired of letting him take all I give him to only spit it back in my face like he has for so many years.

“I came to see an old friend.” His tone is softer now, he’s sincere when he says it. he looks me in the eyes his stare is intense and I never want to look away. He finally breaks his eye contact and pulls out a chess board from beneath the table.

“fancy a game?” I know if I say yes it will be me admitting that everything, he did was ok. That those years of violence and death were behind us. I’m too tired to start our friendship again.

“Not today thank you.”

Erik looks past me at the busy street of Paris. He looks out at the boats passing by on the Seine river, they look like toy sail boats from here. He finally takes a deep breath and looks back at me.

“Along time ago, you saved my life--” he pauses deeply considering his words before he continues. I know, like me, he’s thinking of that time all those years ago when we first met. I can still feel the weight of him in my arms from when I tried to drag him out of the water. “and you offered me a home, I’d like to do the same for you.” This proposal sends an electrical surge through my body, I know for once he means every word. Time and time again I tried to imagine a future with Erik. Some way this could all end with both of us on the same side, and not in all my years of yearning did I think it could actually happen. I can’t help the corner of my lips from turning up into a smile.

“Just one game.” He insists again opening up the chess board. “For old time’s sake.” He holds up his fists and I chose one. White. This all feels so normal, as if this is how it was always meant to be, this is how things were always meant to end, with Erik and I together.

“I’ll go easy on you,” he jokes laying out the chess pieces.

“No, you won’t.” I say suppressing a laugh, then we’re both laughing, my hand colliding with his as I reach for the white pieces and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.


	2. Chapter 2

ERIK

We keep glancing looks at each other while we’re playing as if it’s our little secret. We counteract each other’s moves as if it were a dance. I don’t know who is winning and I don’t care, these games were never about winning it was about us. Charles and I, our minds creating a trap to ensnare the other with our enigma of chess moves. I couldn’t say which of us was better, we’ve always been equally matched. We never kept score of who won, it’s always been about the strategy of the game, about the pulse in my throat when Charles made an impressive play.  
A rook moved then a pawn, our brains desperately trying to decipher the other's next move. Charles and I learned how to read each other through chess, I can always tell when he feels stuck, when he’s impressed by his own move, when he thinks he’s got me beat. Although he does have me at a disadvantage given that he can read thoughts, but he’s never used his gifts to win. Before I know it, the sun is setting over the Seine, setting the world on fire. Charles eyes are piercing, the blue stunningly contrasted with the orange and red sky behind him. He catches me staring at him and my cheeks flush. I want to tell him about the years I was on my own. Anger the only thing keeping me alive; that and the thought of his eyes were the only things that kept me sane. The nights when my dreams are plagued with the ghosts of all those I’ve lost I picture his face, as if to remind myself that there is good in the world. But I don’t tell him this, I’m afraid of what he’ll say, I’m afraid if I do it may exhaust his patience with me. He’s already agreed to stay with me although not verbally so I’m afraid to press any issues of the heart. We haven’t talked the only sound has been the clink of our chess pieces, we normally have our best talks over a game of chess. My distracted thoughts affect my playing and before I know it Charles check mates me.  
“You didn’t have to go easy on me,” His tone is lighthearted. A memory submerges in my mind of a game from lifetimes ago on a plane where he asked me to go easy on him. I offer my hand to him, my sign of good-sportmen ship signaling a game well played.  
\---  
“Will you walk with me?” Charles asks after we finished our coffee and payed for the bill. I almost point out that he can’t in fact walk but given that I value my life I choose against it.  
We move together down the crowded street side by side; I rest my hand on the back of his chair. He stops beside a bench and I take a seat looking over the river. I hold my hands in my lap fidgeting with a paper clip in my pocket making it furl and unfurl like a snake. Charles reaches for me his hands reaching for my own. I snap my head up looking him in the eye. *Are you sure?* I think my thoughts transcending into his mind. He nods a shimmer of something I can’t read flashes across his face, I tentatively let him take my hand in his. His hand feels thin and small in mine. My hand has been roughened by years of work and hard labor. I rest my hand in his afraid to put any pressure as if it might snap this fragile dream.  
“Erik. For a long time, this is all I ever wanted.” he looks at me, a wistful smile spreading across his rosy lips. My heart melts, I soften into his touch.  
“I’m sorry, I wasted so much time fighting you Charles. I’m so sorry.”

CHARLES

His apology takes me aback the Erik I knew was always too stubborn to admit he was wrong, we both were.  
“I’m sorry too, I should have listened to you my friend,” he squeezes my hand in response.  
“No, you were right, you were right all along. I’m tired of hurting people I’m tired of causing pain.” I can feel his shame in my own throat, and it hurts me to see him in such pain. I think I can forgive him; I think I knew all along that I could, it might take a while for us to get used to each other, but I think I can trust him.  
“I’m not like you Charles, you dedicate your life to fixing everything, but everything seems to break around me, and I want to try to be better to be more like you.”  
“Darling.” The word comes out before I can stop it. It sticks like toffee on my tongue, but it seems to fit, he fits the word. “Darling you know it’s not that simple. I’ve hurt people too, I hurt Raven I hurt Jean and countless others.” The images of Raven’s and Jean’s death flash in my mind I can still see it clear as day as if it was etched into the back of my eyelids. “And you don’t break everything, I’ve seen you do good, I’ve seen you save lives.” Erik looks down at his shoes, he’s holding onto my hand with both of his own now, I can feel him wanting my words to be true, I can tell he doesn’t believe me, but it is true. Erik has always done what he thought was right, what he thought would make the world a better place.  
*We’re not perfect, Erik,* I say in his mind. He leans into my words comforted by my familiar presence in his conscious. *We’re human you and I, we may have evolved but we are still human. We are flawed and we’re cracked but that does not mean we’re hopeless.*  
*Always one for the dramatic speeches.* Erik teases but I know my words have comforted him, that he feels more settled into himself because of what I’ve said. I’m trying to convince him as well as myself that what I said was true. He shifts so he can rest his head on my shoulder, which is difficult given the arm of the bench is creating a wide birth between my chair and his body. He’s never touched me like this, it has been so long since he’s let his guard down around me physically and mentally. I press my lips against his forehead, and we sit there our hands in each other watching lights dance on the river. The spray of water and smell of salt so reminiscent of a long time ago on another beach. Cuba feels so long ago, we are completely different people then we were than, and we can finally find peace with one another. 

ERIK

I feel more alive than I have in years, the world seems to have finally realigned itself in a way that I can make sense of. It’s as if the world has finally stopped spinning long enough for me to get my first breath of fresh air in a long time. Charles' cheek rests against my head as we lean into each other, I for once feel safe, the safest I’ve felt in a long time. I’ve spent my whole life on the run but finally I get this moment. Charles’ hand is clasped in both my own, I don’t even mind the arm of the bench digging into my side as long as it means being closer to Charles, a friend that I’ve needed for a very long time.  
“Where do we go from here,” I whisper afraid to startle the earth into motion again.  
I can feel Charles' smile against my own skin.  
“We can go anywhere we want.” We can both feel the endless opportunities stretching out in front of us, we can go anywhere. The honk of a car shakes me from the moment, I lift my head from Charles' shoulder, nearly smacking my head against his in the process.  
“We should probably get going it’s getting late.” I say noting the darkness that seems to have draped the city without either of our notice. Charles glances at a watch on his wrist I can’t help but wonder if he shares my same feelings of disappointment at the sudden end to this quiet moment. “Do you have a place to stay?” I ask Charles.  
“Yes, I’m staying at a little bed and breakfast a few blocks from here.”  
“I’m glad you’ve come somewhat prepared.” I say nervously snapping the paper clip in my pocket.  
“Well I didn’t just pack my bags for Paris without some hint of an idea of what I’d do when I got here,” he jokes knowing that’s exactly what I did. “We aren’t likely to get a cab at this time of night, are you alright with walking?” Oh, Charles always the gentleman.  
“I’ll be fine you said it wasn’t far right? And this is Paris the city of light, I’ve heard it’s more beautiful at night.” I grab my chess board, and the two of us make our way down the cobbled streets of Paris.


	3. Chapter 3

CHARLES  
The city seems to awaken as the night goes on, as if the city was a nocturnal creature finally stretching its legs after its day long slumber. People drinking and clubbing fill the streets, young adults shriek as they swagger through the streets with friends. The atmosphere brings back memories of the night I finished my dissertation.  
“So, what made you come find me?” I ask hesitantly, finally putting words to the question that has been nagging at me all night.  
“I was tired of being alone… and you’re the only person I’ve ever met that seems to understand how that feels. You understood me when no else did, and I… just… I needed a friend, and I missed you.” Erik’s mind opens up to me relaying the dark loneliness that has plagued him for so many years, a loneliness that I too have felt. I see Erik on the run, in dark houses that had become his temporary sanctuaries, his only places of respite. I feel his years of isolation locked in the pentagon. The jagged knife of time has pierced Erik filling the wound with years of emptiness. I remember when we first met, and I could see in his eyes and feel in his heart that he just needed someone to understand him and as desperately then as I do now I want to fill that hole. When I look at him now his eyes burn bright in the starlight and I no longer see a man tormented with years of being an outcast, I see a man who just like me is no longer alone, I see a friend.  
I can tell that this whole day has been a lot for Erik a man who seldom shares his feelings with others, let alone me, I can tell by the way he’s hunching his shoulders he is curling back in on himself.  
“What about you? Why did you leave.” I can tell he’s trying to change the subject, to take the pressure off himself. I know that I have to be honest with him.  
“I messed up Erik. What I did to Jean, I can never forgive myself for that, for what happened to Raven… I just feel I’ve forgotten everything I stood for. I got so wrapped up in everything, I got wrapped up in being a ‘superhero’ that I forgot what this was all for, what the school was for, and it- it was best for me to step down.” I take a shaky breath trying to calm the whirl of thoughts in my brain, I haven’t told anyone this before, I haven’t told anyone about the dark splotch that will forever tarnish my soul. It takes me a moment to realize Erik has stopped walking and I have to turn my chair around to face him.  
“Charles, you are the bravest kindest man I know, and while we didn’t see eye to eye, I know more than anyone that your intentions were only for good. You cannot blame yourself for what happened to Jean.” I can tell Erik is trying to protect, me from whatever I’m going through. Is this why he came back, to give me a home because he thinks I need to be taken care of? Well this isn’t something that I can just run from, I can’t excuse my actions.  
“That doesn’t make my actions right, I can never make what happened to Jean right, I must face what I have done, Erik.”  
“Charles-.” I hold up a hand cutting him off, I felt something. I hear whispers in my mind from something nearby. We are in a rougher part of town, the shops are crooked with roofs that sag inward, we are far past the streets full of light and laughter. The skin on the back of my neck prickles, we are not alone. The darkness of the street and the allies make me far too much aware of how vulnerable to attack Erik and I are; while we are both class A mutants, it is still an unsettling feeling. Sensing my uneasiness Erik raises his hands preparing for whatever fight comes our way. Something shifts in the darkness of the alley, a movement of darkness swirling churning, I can sense a heartbeat, a mind closed off to me. Erik still looks around bewildered unable to see or sense the dark mass. A white hand reaches out of darkness and points a skeletal finger towards me. A white light flares across my brain, images flash rapidly in my vision, I see a small girl, a girl that seems so familiar. The girl raises her hand and rests it on my chest and I feel my heart tighten, as if her boney fingertips where tightening a noose around it, I see her lips forming my name, my name.  
“Charles! Charles.” Erik shakes me his hands set firmly on my shoulders; my neck drops forward as if the person in the dark has sapped all my energy. I bring up my hand and grasp Erik’s elbow for support.  
“Charles, what the hell happened?” he can’t disguise the panic and fear in his voice. Before I have time to tell him what I saw, wh-what I felt a bang causes both of us to jolt. A group of young boys appears around the corner they have metal baseball bats—the source of the clang. We watch as they swing the bats hitting a mail box and sending it towards us, it lands at Erik’s feet with a thud. He pushes it with his toe the metal bending as if he’s doing it out of habit rather than out of the need to. Erik’s eyes meet mine. This is a fight we could easily win but I would rather avoid it all together, but I don’t know if that’s an option. I can already see the all too familiar glint in Erik’s eye whenever he’s presented with a challenge, and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop this stubborn bastard. The group of boys start towards us just now realizing we are here. They run towards us bats swinging, speaking in rapid French, what I can only assume were taunts and jeers.  
*Do we run?* I think to Erik.  
*No, I think these punks need to learn a lesson.* I roll my eyes, god this man is going to be the death of me.  
The boys surround us, swinging their bats trying to look threatening. They begin yelling some more in French but when neither Erik or I respond one of the bigger boys begins talking in English.  
“Look what we have here boys? Tu voit le petite homme et se petit copain, ils est laid.” he croons.  
“A man with wheels and his chauffeur.” Another boy jeers in broken English.  
I can feel anger radiating off of Erik it curls off him like smoke. I can easily have blinked and knocked them all out but maybe Erik was right, maybe they do need to be taught a lesson. Oh god what am I becoming? Despite the anger fuming from Erik’s interior his demeanor couldn’t be more then opposite.  
“Oh, darlings you’re going to have come up with something better then that.” His words cause a stir in the young juveniles.  
“Fuck you too chatte!” the teen grabs a bat from one of the other boys’ lunges at Erik. The club swings towards Erik. Erik closes his eyes causing the bat to stop in midair, sending the boy stumbling forward falling onto the cobble stones at Erik’s feet. The other boys freeze staring with their mouths open at the bat that floats revolving slowly in the air “c’est magie!” one of the boys screams.  
“Erik!” I say giving a warning to the man. I close my eyes and open my mind to Erik stopping time as I see a play by play of a possible course of actions that could occur if I let Erik continue his madness. In Erik’s mind he doesn’t stop the bat, it continues to advance on the boys. The other boys’ bats fly out of their hands and circle them slowly advancing on each boy. A trash can begins to rattle the lid flying up and spinning rapidly faster and faster until it shoots into a wall behind one of the boys. I snap my eyes open the vison gone the single bat still revolving in the air harmless.  
“Erik!” I reach out with my mind towards Erik desperately hoping to bight any violent action in the bud. He lets me in, and our minds are linked, and I try to send pulses of calmness,  
The bat stops and falls like a comet hitting the cobble stones with a thud that echoes against the ally walls. The boys shout flinching away from the sound.  
“Get out of here, leave! get out of here!” Erik screams I can see his cheeks flushing in the dim light of a streetlight, and just like that they all scamper off without even bothering to pick up their bats.  
*Erick?* I reach out to him in my mind afraid of what state he’s in, afraid of which Erik I was talking to.  
“I’m fine,” Erik let’s out a stifling breath.  
I can’t help myself but send images of times before when his actions have gone too far, where his actions had caused suffering. The images send a jolt through his whole body and he turns on me.  
“Charles, I had it under control!” he struggles to keep his voice steady, “I know what I’ve done! I don’t need a constant reminder of all the times I’ve fucked up!”  
I push my chair forwards, passing Erik, I remember now how difficult it is to live with Erik, for one goddamn second I thought he was past this and yet here he is.  
“Charles, listen to me.” Erik has caught up to me and grabs my shoulder, I push it off.  
“Every time Erik! Why, why can’t you just—why can’t you just” I don’t know what I want him to 'just' be, but not this, because I know that this isn’t who he’s meant to be.

ERIK  
Anger burns red at the edge of my vison, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, why the anger fills me up so quickly, but it does it swallows me whole and it makes it hard for me to keep control. I take a deep breath and look at Charles.  
“Charles. I had the situation under control.” I say calmly as if talking to a startled animal, “I know you hate when you’re not in control, but you have to trust me. You can’t just use your power to take over my mind when you don’t like my actions. And you cannot use past memories as a weapon.” Charles still refuses to look at me.  
“I saw it, I looked into your mind, you were going to hurt them, you were going to take it too far like you always do!” I’m hurt by his words, Charles always believed in me, he always gave me the benefit of the doubt. While he always tried to control my actions (most of the time I begrudgingly admit have been justifiable) I’ve never seen him lose hope with me the way he seems to be right now.  
“Charles…” I hate myself for sounding hurt, for sounding weak, “you cannot persecute me and my actions before they even happen.” I walk over to the man, he looks so small in his chair, he runs is fingers over his bald scalp—a nervous habit that he’s picked up, I know that he’s still not used to the absence of hair.  
“Erik, I’m sorry. I’m doing it again, the same thing I did to Jean. I couldn’t stand the idea of not being in control, of not being able to protect her from herself. In the process of trying to save her I destroyed her, I did the same to Raven, now to you.” He buries his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking. “Why does every time I try to do something good it crumbles in my hands.”  
“Because you’re a flawed, broken man, just like me. We match Charles. Perhaps we were destined for each other, in a sick twisted way, and together we’ll make something beautiful. Something that doesn’t fall apart.”  
“Shit we’re a pathetic pair, old friend.”  
“That we are, now come on we’ve got to get to bed.”  
\---  
When we finally get to where Charles is staying, we’re both exhausted. I lean against the door happy to finally be able to get a much needed sleep.  
“Do you have the key?”  
“Yeah, here.” Charles pivots his wheelchair to face me. He misjudges how close I am to him and in the darkness his wheelchair crunches over my toe as he turns.  
“Fuck! Charles.” I pull my foot out from underneath the wheel and rub the outside of my shoe in a futile attempt of easing the pain.  
“Oh! I’m so sorry Erik!” Charles rolls his chair back away from me to avoid inflicting any more accidental injuries. “Are you alright?” he reaches a helping hand to me, giving me support as I stand on one foot trying to take pressure off the injured foot.  
“I think it’s ok,” I lie. Charles gives me a concerned look, “honestly Charles, I’m fine. It’s just a little bruised is all.” I say with a halfhearted chuckle. Relief floods his face; he shakes his head with an exasperated, yet amused, huff.  
“Shit tonight has been a little too eventful for my liking. Let’s just get some sleep and we can figure everything out in the morning, it’s been a long day.” I nod in agreement. Charles fishes around for the key from a bag, when he finally finds it, he inserts it into the door. When the door opens the first thing that hits me is the smell, I wrinkle my noise, the stench of blue cheese and cheap wine that hangs like a fog in the room. The room is small there’s only one queen size bed facing a small 12-inch tv. Charles rolls over to the bed where his suitcase sits open, he pulls out sleep wear and begins undressing.  
“I can sleep on the floor.” I say, opening the single closet looking for spare sheets that I could use to create a makeshift bed, fighting the impulse to watch him change.  
“It’s fine, we can share the bed.” I turn to face him, needing to know if this is a serious offer.  
“Are you sure?” I ask hesitantly, despite any of the events today the single bed seems too intimate.  
“Yes, it’s fine.” I turn from the closet seeing that Charles wearing a matching shirt and pajama bottoms.  
“Do you need help?” I ask him, unsure if he needed assistance getting on the bed. He only glares at me as if I just asked the stupidest question in the world. Pulling back the bed sheets he heaves himself onto the bed. I don’t make any effort to join him as he makes himself comfortable adjusting his legs, so they lie flat, he notices my hesitation and sighs heavily.  
“For Christ sake! Come over here and get some sleep old man.”


	4. Chapter 4

ERIK  
“Charles I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I cover my face in my hands trying desperately to fight the surge of power churning inside me. “You don’t know what it’s like to have this- this power living inside you, I can’t control it.”  
“Oh, I don’t know what it’s like? I have to live with the lives of every human being living in my brain, I just know how to fucking control myself!”  
The world is burning around me, fallen buildings and bent-broken bodies litter the ground—my destruction. I hover above the earth, metal creating a cyclone around me, Charles lays huddled at my feet his wheelchair gone making it impossible for him to flee.  
I was fine I had everything under control but then I couldn’t stop. The power pours from me like lightening on my skin, I live and breathe it, it intoxicates me. Memories of the man at my feet begin to escape my mind, I’m losing sight of who I am, I can’t remember. All I can see are the humans their guns pointed at the army of mutants behind me, the only thought in my head is how desperately I wish to spill their blood. I raise my hand and send a piece of metal through Charles heart.

I wake up with a start, Charles dead body is burned into my retinas. My heart is beating so hard it feels as if it’s trying to crawl its way out of my chest. I must have sent out a magnetic pulse in my sleep because my face is covered in coins, screws, and other small bits of medal. I look over at Charles and let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding when I see he’s fine. It was just a dream, nothing more than a dream. I get up and make my way to the small bathroom, and splash water on my face. My whole body is drenched in a cold wet sweat that gives me goosebumps and causes my teeth to chatter. Even in my dreams I end up hurting Charles.  
When I make my way back to the small bedroom a light is on and Charles sitting up in bed watching me.

CHARLES  
“Are you alright?” Erik avoids making eye contact with me as he slides back into the bed.  
“Just a nightmare is all. Go back to bed.” Erik’s head tells me the opposite, a storm of turmoil wages in his mind and creates an irritable prickling feeling in my own.  
“Erik?” he only grunts in response his back to me. The bed is uncomfortably small his heat washes over me. I desperately want to breech the gap of sheets between us to cradle his mind in my own. My skin itches in a way that it hasn’t since we first met. Despite the afternoon we spent together we still haven’t done much talking, I still don’t know where we stand with each other, what he wants from our relationship, what I want. I know that now is not the time or place to be posing such questions, but I crave him, he’s so close to me yet so far away.  
*Erik, you know you can tell me anything.* I push the words into Erik’s conscious without a sound.  
*Stay out of my head old man,* Erik presses the words back, “get some sleep we both need it.”  
Erik still doesn’t turn to look at me, my only view of him is the curve of his back outlined by the thin sheet. His back is strong and muscular his shoulder blades are angular like wings. I cannot lie, the dream of sharing a bed with Erik has crossed my mind more than once, but I never imagined it would occur in a situation like this. The thought makes me gut twist with guilt. Perhaps it was presumptuous of me to assume that when he offered me a home, he also was offering his love. Turning the light off I try to push any thoughts of Erik out of my mind, after all what right do I have to take up space in the man’s heart. All those I love end up dying and I couldn’t bare Erik ending up the way Raven or Jean did, so instead I try to fight my way back to sleep.  
\---  
My sleep comes in spurts, but I can feel Erik’s nightmares, his fear and unease radiate in my teeth making my mouth taste like metal. It becomes too much for me to take. Putting my hand on Erik’s bare shoulder I shake him awake. He jumps with a start as soon as I touch him, he’s so startled he sends my watch flying off the nightstand into the tv.  
“You were having another nightmare.” I say reassuringly. Erik’s eyes roam around the room as if he’s trying to remember where he is, when his eyes fall on me recognition lights up in his eyes.  
“Were you looking in my head again? Did you see my dream?” Erik asks accusingly.  
“I didn’t have to, your whole being is drenched in fear, I could feel the dream.”  
“Sorry for waking you.” Erik mutters ashamed.  
“It’s fine, do you want to talk about it?”  
“No, you don’t need to worry yourself.”  
“Really it’s fine, I can help take them away if you’d like.” Erik thinks for a second weighing this option in his mind.  
“Ok,” he says doubtfully. “Just promise me you won’t go roaming around in there.”  
“I promise.” I place my hand once more on his shoulder and sift through his mind, easing it so he can sleep nightmare free.


End file.
